USC Annenberg sends more than 170 undergraduate and graduate students a year to a variety of educational programs in international cities such as Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Auckland, Grahamstown (South Africa), Dublin and Shanghai.
“It is life changing,” said Matthew Erskine, USC Annenberg’s director of International Programs. “People come back from even the shortest program with a different perspective, with different goals for themselves.”
USC Annenberg’s International Programs works with universities and career placement companies across the globe as well as USC’s Financial Aid office to ensure students have access to a wide variety of programs and internships abroad.
Erskine said that developing an international perspective through a program such as those offered through USC Annenberg is a vital contribution to a college education.
Lex Hauser (’09) agreed. “I learned so much about both myself and the rest of the world,” Hauser said.
She participated in the Communication program in Amsterdam in 2007 and said it was the best experience of her life.
Stephanie Lee, who studied Health Promotion and Disease Prevention with a minor in East Asian Languages and Cultures, travelled outside of the United States for the first time through USC Annenberg’s Hong Kong program.
During her semester, Lee became intrigued with other cultures and places around the world.
“It gave me a chance to interact with people who lived and had grown up in a completely different environment than I had, and it was great to see how that environment influenced their beliefs, values, and perspective on issues,” Lee said.
Lee was able to choose from an array of classes as diverse as her surroundings. Besides the typical Cantonese, Mandarin, Biology, Accounting and Psychology classes, she was able to study Public International Law, Chinese Medicine, Chinese Film, Chinese Art and Yoga. Lee is pursuing a Masters in Public Health and has since returned to China multiple times to do research at Wuhan University School of Public Health.
Lee’s desire to return abroad is not uncommon – Erskine said that most students return from a semester abroad wanting to turn around and go right back. Erskine has himself remained in the United States after traveling from the United Kingdom for a semester abroad more than a decade ago. “It has shaped everything I’ve done since then,” said Erskine.
USC Annenberg is starting to collaborate more between international programs and career development, which creates multiple opportunities for students to return abroad.
Undergraduate and graduate students alike can pursue a variety of full-time, professional internships where they get hands-on experience working for the companies leading their chosen fields of study.
USC Annenberg’s International Programs office pairs students with international internships in the field of their choice. Students have the opportunity to work in fields such as: Politics, Advertisement, Public Relations, Journalism, Film and Television and Arts Organization.
Daniel Atwater interned in Cape Town in summer 2009, where he conducted South Africa’s first online study of social media use in the public relations industry.
“Since interning and taking a class in Cape Town, I pursued education and my involvement in academia with a different vision and sense of purpose,” Atwater said.
Erskine said “we’ve had students who have gone back to do masters programs in the UK after they have spent a semester in London with the Communication program, we’ve had grad students who have gone to work overseas after interning for a summer with this program. A lot of them do end up working with either an American arm of a company that they worked for overseas or living and working abroad.”
Atwater said he has gone back to countries in Eastern and Western Africa; “The experience in all four countries positioned me for projects remotely benefiting South Africa since my return.”
USC Annenberg sends as many as 50 students to international internships each summer. The school also offers a concentrated immersion in public communications media across Europe with the International Communication Studies Program. Currently in its 40th year, ICS is a five-week summer program during which students study international media practices through visits to institutions such as BBC World News Service in London, CNN in Paris, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, and The Vatican Press Office in Rome.
In order to ease any financial concerns a student may have about studying abroad, Annenberg creates detailed budgets for each student applying to an international program and works hand-in-hand with the USC Financial Aid office to help repackage a student’s aid.
Lee said that “it was much cheaper living at CUHK than USC. Food is also cheaper and I was able to save money to go on a few trips to China during my time there.”
Erskine agreed that this is often the case: “A lot of our semester programs tuition alone is much cheaper than being at USC- about 50 percent of the cost in a lot of cases.”
Including the costs of living and additional travels to nearby countries, a semester abroad rarely ends up costing more than the USC Financial Aid’s office estimated cost of attendance at USC, Erskine said.
As for financing the internships abroad, graduate students are given supplemental applications for summer financial aid. For summer 2011, about 1/3 of undergraduates were granted scholarship money.
Erskine said that creating more scholarship opportunities for students going abroad is a priority. USC Annenberg is “always on the lookout to get more sources of financial aid and financial scholarships for our students studying in the programs,” Erskine said.
Therefore, there are few obstacles standing in the way of a USC Annenberg student and a life-changing experience in a foreign country, which allows students to take Hauser’s advice:
“If there's one thing that you absolutely must do while you're in college, it's study abroad in a foreign country. It is truly an opportunity of a lifetime,” Hauser said. “I know that I will forever look back on it as one of the most magical times of my life."
